Academy Honors South Carolina High School Football Coach
Pictured left to right are Summerville High School Assistant Principal Bobby Behr, Summerville High School Head Volleyball Coach and Academy Alum (1989) Teresa Kendle, Coach John McKissick, Academy National Faculty member Dr. Stan Drawdy, and Summerville High School Assistant Coach and Academy Alum (2003) Steve Wilson.
John McKissick, the-80-year-old football coach who has guided Summerville (S.C.) High School to 10 state championships and 530 wins in 55 years, has been honored with a Distinguished Service Award from the United States Sports Academy. Academy National Faculty member Stan Drawdy presented McKissick with the award on 14 February at Summerville High School.
McKissick, known for using football to teach “life lessons” to his players, has won more games than any football coach at any level: high school, college or professional. He has coached three generations of players, including his own grandchildren.
With a record of 530-127-13 at a high school that has grown from less then 300 students to more than 3,000, McKissick has led the Summerville Green Wave through 55 years that have included local, state and national honors.
The state of South Carolina declared a John McKissick Day in 1977. McKissick was named National Coach of the Year in 1980, 1994 and 2003. In 1987, Summerville High School named the school’s stadium in his honor. He was inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame in 1990. The Summerville School District funds an endowment college scholarship for a football player each year in the names of McKissick and his wife Joan.
McKissick, the son of a Baptist Sunday school superintendent and the grandson of a Methodist minister, grew up in Kingstree, S.C. during the Great Depression. He was a starter on his high school team as an eighth grader playing center before finishing his time there as a fullback.
He attended Clemson before being drafted into the U.S. Army, where he played football and baseball, he also and wrestled with noted teammates such as former Boston/Milwaukee Brave Jonny Logan, Brooklyn Dodger Mickey Owen and Joe Dobson of Boston Red Sox fame. After his discharge, he played football at Brevard Junior College before transferring to Presbyterian College, where he learned to coach.
His first coaching job was with a six-man football team, in a version of the game he knew nothing about at the time, at Clarkton (N.C.) High School in 1951. In ’52 he was hired by Summerville because, as he later said, he was the only candidate that did not ask about the salary. He won his first state championship in 1955 and has gone on to coach not only several prominent college players and a few NFL players, but a long line of doctors, lawyers and teachers.
The Distinguished Service Award (DSA) is given annually to those individuals who have made outstanding contributions to national or international sports through instruction, research or service.
McKissick received the Academy's Order of the Eagle Exemplar medal and Academy Rosette. The Academy's Order of the Eagle Exemplar medallion was designed by the Academy's Sport Artist of the Year 1990, Blair Buswell. The rosette, modeled after the Legion of Honour, was instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802. A rosette is a symbol of recognition and affiliation.
The Distinguished Service Award has been presented by the Academy since 1984. Past honorees have included Frank DeFord, Dean Smith, Bobby Allison, Don Shula, Jimmy Connors, George Brett, Martina Navratilova, Harvey Schiller, Pat Summitt, Eddie Robinson, George Steinbrenner, Mario Lemieux, Bud Selig, Al McGuire and Nancy Lopez. For more information visit: www.asama.org/awards.
